Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Transnational judicial bodies have grown in number and importance in the past century, becoming major players in international politics, lawmaking, and the global economy.1 Their decisions affect us all, whether directly or mediated by domestic legal systems. Yet the judges sitting on transnational courts are often at odds with the billions of people affected by their decisions in terms of representation. For instance, though the world is gender diverse and many domestic judiciaries have made strides toward gender parity, symposium contributor Jarpa Dawuni emphasizes that women, especially women of color, remain dramatically underrepresented on transnational courts outside of the African continent. 2 The disparity is particularly striking for certain countries: while 63% of domestic French judges identify as women, France has never nominated a single female judge to an international or regional court, as Laurence Burgogue-Larsen notes in her contribution to this volume.

The paradox of transnational courts, however, is that if by one measure they lack in judicial diversity, by another measure, they are designed based on the very principle of judicial diversity, unlike their domestic counterparts. The goal of this symposium is to investigate this tension by offering case studies examining different dimensions of diversity at a number of transnational courts. This introduction will begin by scrutinizing the terms of the debate, before exploring how transnational courts actively pursue judicial diversity, and briefly presenting the six essays collected in this volume.

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